ACT Skills: Getting Hooked

You can personalize the ACT Skills: Getting Hooked resource by downloading it HERE, and adding your own responses, or continue to view it below.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an approach that aims to find acceptance for current struggles, followed by commitment to actions that can reduce the struggles. ACT can be helpful in clarifying our values and aligning our actions with those values, to improve our mental health. One tool in ACT is to notice when we “get hooked” by certain thoughts that lead us to act in ways that cause harm to ourselves or our relationships, or keep us from living from our values.

Getting Hooked Metaphor

We can begin to understand how our minds get hooked, by first imagining a fly fisher in a mountain stream. We see the fisher place bait on the end of the lure that looks like a flying insect…the fly may be shiny, move around in the water like an actual insect, and seem completely realistic to the fish in the stream. The fish then sees this fake fly in the water, thinks that it’s about to catch its next meal, and then gets hooked.

Similarly, our minds may also offer us “fake flies” in the stream of consciousness. These thoughts may seem true or helpful, or meet some sort of need, yet are ultimately our brain’s perception playing tricks on us. For example, we may see a friend walking down the street, wave to them, but then they seem to ignore us. Our mind may get hooked by this, setting off a whole string of thoughts, “why would they ignore me…did I do something wrong…they must hate me…I’m probably a bad friend.” Then we may start avoiding that friend altogether, even though our friend just didn't see us when we waved.

Getting Hooked Exercise

The exercise found HERE can be used over the week to notice when we get hooked by unhelpful thoughts, how those thoughts affect us, and how we can unhook ourselves. With time and practice, this awareness can help us reduce anxious thoughts, rumination, and give us opportunities to cope in ways that are aligned with our values.

The exercise can also be completed in a notebook or notes app, and follows the reflections below:

• Describe the stressful situation.
• What did your mind say to hook you, and how did you feel?
• What actions did you take when you were hooked and how did those actions affect you?
• How did you unhook yourself or how can you unhook yourself in the future?

Additional Exercises

• CBT: Cognitive Triangle
• CBT: Thought Record
• Coping Skills
• DBT: Opposite Action
• Deep Breathing
• Emotion Wheel